INBOUND MARKETING BLOG

A Trade Show Tactic That Should Be Applied To Your Website

• By Donny Kemick

If I had a nickel for every free swag item I got at trade shows, I would be writing this from a beach with an umbrella-straw drink in hand. Can you relate? You know you can!!! How did I get pulled into those trade show booths and listen to the marketing folks for those companies for 10 minutes, "earning" my free swag? Some sort of CALL TO ACTION!!!! That's right, like a small child chasing a butterfly, I saw or heard a big CTA and there I was, chasing down the perceived value. Next thing I knew, I was learning all about the butterfly's value and what it could do for me or my clients. Your website needs to steal that tactic right off the trade show floor. You need to have a strong value offer (CTA) in multiple places, so your website visitors chase that butterfly until they are sitting in your email marketing list or CRM and become leads. The key difference is that your website can provide these visitors with valuable content that will help solve their problems and challenges instead ...

Stop Playing Catch-up and Fully Commit To Blogging, Social & SEO

• By Donny Kemick

Why Do Your Clients/Customers Buy From You?

• By Donny Kemick

Reason 1:______________________________ Reason 2:______________________________ Reason 3:______________________________ If I had to guess I'd say you listed things like your level of service, your history of quality and reliability and your willingness to do whatever it takes to make your clients/customers fully satisfied. Those are all good reasons for someone to do business with you. Are those things that all of your new prospects know when they are looking for your product or service? In some cases a referral may provide those insights, but those aren't the prospects I'm talking about. Do the new clients you work with that have found your offering on their own know about these things? No. Most do not. Your website, advertisements and print collateral may try to convey those messages, but let's be honest. These new prospects only made a connection with you for 1 reason: THEY THOUGHT YOU COULD SOLVE ONE OF THEIR PROBLEMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's right. Initially, they weren't at all ...

A Toe In The Web Marketing Water Will Yield Toe Jam

• By Donny Kemick

Before A Website Redesign, Identify Your Buyer Personas

• By Donny Kemick

Does Your Content Have The Right Stuff?

• By Donny Kemick

If you are a web marketer or have a business with an online presence, you have to hear the constant noise surrounding content marketing as a key part of your web marketing strategy. If you haven't heard about content marketing, either you aren't really focused on succeeding online, or your current web marketing firm is failing you.

Your Web Marketing Strategy Should Outline Your Follow-up Process

• By Donny Kemick

So you've seen the light and bought into the inbound marketing concept. You are generating content like a ninja and have some good top of funnel activity through search (SEO), social media and email. You are seeing some conversions such as email opt-ins, e-resource downloads, and even quote requests, but you're not sure what to do after the conversion. Your sales people want to stalk these website visitors and corner them into a sale. Your marketing people want to try to collect more data about these folks and continue to send marketing pieces tailored to them. What is the right process? Following Up With Window Shoppers - Freebie Grabbers Clearly an opt-in to a mailing list or e-resource download doesn't really qualify a lead to be harassed by sales. These are mainly window shoppers that see some potential value from your content. They aren't raving fans (yet) about your product/service/company, but have now taken a step towards being open to receiving more value from your company. ...

Constantly Evaluate Your Web Marketing Strategy - React And Adjust

• By Donny Kemick

Recently we've spent a lot of time stressing the importance of a solid inbound marketing strategy with the following posts: Pop Quiz – 10 Questions To See If Your Organization Has A Web Strategy A Good Strategy For The Future Starts With Evaluating The Past Web Marketing Strategy From 10,000 Feet Your 1st Inbound Marketing Meeting Agenda Your Web Strategy Should Include Listening – Who, What, When, Where, How, Why Online Marketing in a Small Town Part 1 Online Marketing in a Small Town Part 2 – Your Website Online Marketing in a Small Town Part 3 – Local SEO Online Marketing in a Small Town Part 4 – Pay-Per-Click While those are not a prerequisite for this post, I'd definitely recommend giving those a read if you're in the early stages of or haven't started your web strategy yet. Today I want to stress that while it's important to have a strategy, it's just as important be willing to adjust and shift your strategy based on your metrics and results. How Long Before I Adjust? With all ...

Your Facebook Business Page Will Look Different VERY Soon

• By Donny Kemick

If you've had a web presence for longer than 6 months, you've no doubt noticed that things change, a lot! They're not always big changes, but many small changes can easily equal a large change. It's best to plan for this as much as possible in your inbound marketing strategy. Simply expect to see surprised changes coming and they won't be as rattling to your work flow. Facebook announced yesterday that Facebook business pages are getting a redesign in the next week or so. The biggest change from a visual standpoint is that they will appear much more like a personal profile page now, shedding the 2nd column and unifying business page posts in a singular list. This makes it easier to ensure your images look correct in all places that they may be seen (posts, shares, etc...), a big plus! Missing A Column And What Else? It's really not clear what the new layout has done with custom tabs that currently show as boxes under your banner picture like so: Some online discussions have pointed to ...

Your Web Strategy Should Include Listening

• By Donny Kemick

When you're laying out your web marketing strategy, it's imperative to include have an ongoing process of listening. That's right, listening. It's tempting to start broadcasting immediately, and you can if you want, but listening first will make sure you are broadcasting correctly. Who Should You Listen To? The first and most obvious question is, who should I be listening to? Here's a short list that may need added to for your industry: Clients Suppliers Leads Folks you'd like to have as clients Influencers in your industry Experts in related fields to yours Competitors Partners Professionals in fields like web marketing News sources Industry media sources What To Listen To? A list of what to listen to would include: Blogs Twitter Facebook LinkedIN Instagram Google+ Yelp/Foursquare/Other location if applicable Email lists Pinterest Industry news sites There're many things to listen to in the sources on the list above. Let's examine just a few with specifics, shall we? Clients & ...